Struggling with Diplopia? Vision Therapy Can Help

Seeing double? Although it's not unusual to experience diplopia (double vision) for a few seconds when your eyes are tired or dry, lengthy periods of diplopia can interfere with reading, writing, driving, and even walking. Your vision therapist offers treatments that target the source of the problem and help you improve your vision.

Double Vision Causes

Diplopia is a common problem in the U.S. About 850,000 people visit emergency rooms and medical offices every year due to double vision, according to a research study conducted at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center.

Eyestrain is a frequent cause of temporary diplopia. The vision change might happen after you've spent hours writing a report on your laptop or during a long road trip.

Double vision could be a warning sign that your blood sugar isn't well controlled if you have diabetes. The clear lens behind your iris and pupil swells when your blood sugar rises, causing diplopia and blurry vision. Conditions that affect the brain, like head injuries and strokes, may also cause double vision. In some cases, diplopia can be a symptom of multiple sclerosis, migraines, thyroid disease, or brain tumors.

Dry eyes, a frequent complaint among digital screen users, can cause double vision. You're more likely to develop diplopia if you have a problem with your eye. You might see double if you have a scar on your cornea, cataracts, a corneal infection, or keratoconus, a condition that causes your clear, rounded cornea to become cone-shaped.

Some causes of diplopia aren't obvious. You might experience double vision if there's a subtle problem with your vision. Vision problems that can cause double vision include:

• Problems with Nerves and Muscles. Diplopia can happen if there's an issue with eye muscles or the nerves that tell eye muscles what to do.
• Visual Processing Problems. Your brain receives signals from the eyes, which it processes into images. An issue or delay in the brain's processing abilities can result in double vision.
• Strabismus. Strabismus (crossed eyes) happens when your eyes are misaligned. One eye may look up, down, outward, or inward while the other looks straight ahead. The brain receives conflicting information from the eyes when you have strabismus, even if alignment issues are minor or unnoticeable. Double vision may occur as the brain struggles to create one image from the inconsistent information it receives.
• Eye Teaming Issues. You may experience diplopia if your eyes don't work together as a team. Convergence insufficiency, one type of eye teaming problem, could be the reason you're seeing double. Good vision depends upon your eyes converging, or turning inward, when you look at something close to your face. Convergence insufficiency happens when one eye turns inward more than the other or both eyes don't converge enough for clear vision.

How Your Vision Therapist Can Help with Diplopia

Your vision therapist diagnoses vision issues that may cause or contribute to your diplopia symptoms during a comprehensive eye examination. Although you may have 20-20 vision with or without eyeglasses or contacts, you might still have strabismus, convergence insufficiency or another problem that could trigger diplopia symptoms.

Once your vision therapist determines the cause of diplopia, you'll begin a vision therapy program designed to improve your visual abilities and eliminate double vision. Your vision therapy plan will depend on your diagnosis, but will involve fun and challenging activities that will improve communication between your brain and eyes. If you have convergence insufficiency or another eye-teaming issue, you may play computer games that involve shooting at targets or popping bubbles or practice your convergence skills by focusing on small balls on a string.

Changing the way light enters your eyes could be helpful if you have strabismus. When light isn't focused precisely on the retina at the back of the eye, double vision can occur. Your vision therapist might recommend wearing prism lenses that bend light, ensuring it enters your eye correctly.

Your vision therapy program will be tailored to your vision problem and may include hands-on activities, exercises, computer games, special lenses, balance boards, and other devices and tools.

Are you struggling with diplopia? Contact our office and find out how vision therapy could help you.

Sources:

Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan: Report Reveals Prominence of Double Vision Complaints, 10/26/2017

https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/report-reveals-prominence-double-vision-complaints

American Optometric Association: Strabismus (Crossed Eyes)

https://www.aoa.org/healthy-eyes/eye-and-vision-conditions/strabismus?sso=y

WebMD: Diplopia (Double Vision), 11/2/2022

https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/double-vision-diplopia-causes-symptoms-diagnosis-treatment

Cleveland Clinic: Diplopia (Double Vision), 8/6/2024

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22203-diplopia-double-vision